Serbs serve more “Blood” than “Honey” for Angelina Jolie’s film promotion

According to the Guardian’s article Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut “In the Land of Blood and Honey was intended to remind the world of the horrors of the Bosnian war which began 20 years ago, and trigger a debate among Bosnians over what happened and why. But it has succeeded most in exposing the depth of the rifts in a country that many fear is moving away from reconciliation and drifting once more towards dangerous instability. Since the film opened, with a peace award at the Berlin film festival on Monday (13 February 2012) and a premiere before 5,000 people in Sarajevo on Tuesday night, Jolie and several Serbian members of the cast have received threats.
In the Land of Blood and Honey is a stark, brutal and often shocking portrayal of the war. It shows summary executions and the systematic rape of Muslim and Croat women by Serbian officers at one of the many camps set up around the country.
An estimated 100,000 people were killed in the war, 8,000 Muslim men and boys murdered at Srebrenica in 1995, which the Hague tribunal has declared an act of genocide.
The current Bosnian Serb leadership rejects the findings of the tribunal and other international investigations, and Jolie’s film is not being shown in the Republika Srpska, the Serbian entity which makes up more than half of Bosnia.”
Republika Srpska (Serbian Republic) arose from within the borders of the former Yugoslav state of Bosnia and Herzegovina and it’s “birth” is soaked in genocidal blood and horrors of the 1990’s wars when Croatian and Bosnian Serbs and the Serb-led Yugoslav Army mounted terrible aggression in order to stop the secession of Croatia and Bosnia from communist Yugoslavia. It is, therefore, no surprise that Bosnian Serbs have hostile attitudes towards Jolie’s movie. One can safely conclude that Serbs don’t want the world to know or imagine more about their horrors.Critics, including renowned Serbian film director Emir Kusturica, “alleged that Jolie unfairly had depicted ethnic Serbs as sole aggressors in the war and associated ethnic-cleansing campaigns. Kusturica told Serbian daily Blic that Jolie’s new film was a work of Hollywood propaganda.”
Does it really matter whether it’s propaganda or not?

In all its history, movie making has been about bringing to the world portrayals of factual as well as fictional events. Jolie has brought a factual story of horror told by fictional characters. There’s no propaganda in that. But even if it were propaganda then it’s high time for more of it because justice has not yet been served to all the innocent victims, and especially not to rape victims in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

So, I say: “good on you, Angelina! Now make a movie on the thousands upon thousands of rape victims in Croatia because Croatian women who were raped by the Serbs during the 1990’s war still await their justice. But worse than that, they are forced to live in the same community as their rapists (e.g. in Vukovar) because the international community, particularly the European Union, has been pushing for the return to Croatia of Serbs who fled the country in 1995 without insisting on justice and conditions that Serbs need to meet if they wish to rehabilitate themselves back into the country which they so brutally ravaged.Attending the Croatian premiere of the movie in Zagreb, Croatia, Friday February 17, Jolie said: “I hope that my film will throw a light upon this region, that people will come and travel here, be excited by your beautiful country and artists that inspire”. When, on the red carpet, asked why she made the movie she replied: “It was the bloodiest conflict since WWII, and I felt that I did not know anything about it, like many people in other countries. People here have suffered enormous agonies and are still suffering through much. International community needs to continue helping them.”

Let’s hope that Jolie’s movie will trigger more investigations and prosecution of all rapists from the war in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. While Serb rapists from Bosnia have maintained a relatively safe haven from prosecution within the Serbian Republic and Serbia, in Croatia most roam freely because the international community insists on their return to Croatia. While the ICTY in the Hague has included rape as a war crime, only the individuals who are before it get to answer for it. The majority of the rapists are still at large and much more needs to be done for justice to be served. Every bit helps and Jolie’s film may well trigger some blood into a boiling point that will see an increased number of criminal investigations and criminal trials for rape, wherever the rapists may be – even in “Western” countries where many live normal lives as refugees from former Yugoslavia. Ina Vukic, Prof. (Zgb); B.A., M.A. Ps. (Syd)

Oh, so we Serbs are the bad guys for defending our once peaceful and powerful nation of Yugoslavia, and NATO are the good guys for bombing hundreds of civilians, women and children, and helping the Bosnian Muslims and Albanians murder our people as well?

I am sickened by Angelina’s pure anti-Serb film, and it is not a film intended to “educate”, but it is pure and simple a film dedicated to spreading a false message about Serbs.

Countless Serb lives were lost from NATO bombings, Albanian massacres, Bosnian Muslim-organized slaughters and Croatian-led killings of Serbs, yet no one seems to even care.

The biggest criminals of the Yugoslav Wars were NATO, the EU and the Kosovo Liberation Army. Not the Serbs.

Don’t know what “countless” numbers means – I think you will find that actual numbers of victims are known and recorded – and I do not mean made up ones. If Yugoslavia was peaceful and powerful it would not have fallen apart in misery. Sorry but only Serbs didn’t want the break up of Yugoslavia all other nations did and that tells you that majority of people in former Yugoslavia did not want it, and their choice needs to be respected and not bludgeoned.

As for Angelina Jolie’s film it is a film depicting via fictional characters some of the brutal truth that occurred. Thank you on your comment

All Serbs needed to do is to respect the wish of the majority of people in states they lived in to secede from Yugoslavia, stop aggression then they too would be spared from losing their life in the fire of defence. You almost think that the Croats and Bosniaks Serbs attacked had no right to defence. I personally feel for every victim of violence whatever their ethnic origin. No Croat or Bosnian went into Serbia with guns, never forget that and Serbs from Serbia went into Croatia and Bosnia with guns and aggression. Thank you for your comment

Your figures are inaccurate.Serbia factions lost 34 703 soldiers while Bosnjaks had 97 432 casualties almost all killed by Serbs whereas Croatian side had 7 048 killed in Bosnia and 24 871 in Croatia .So considering that Serbs had upper hand by having overwhelming advantage in armaments and personel at the start of hostilities eventual victory by Croats and Bosnjaks is admirable achievement

Max – just go and hide somewhere and wallow in your hatred, jealousy and pathetic words. Is Germany a copy of Nazi Germany and all other 34 European states that were Nazi collaborators including Serbia although Serbia, like you, hide in cowardice, also a copy. Croatia of today has democracy and in fact today’s government is made up of those in Croatia that fought against Nazis in WWII.
You’re a nut not worth listening to, if I were the admin of this site I would erase your comment.

Of course that the Serbian people comitted crimes. But one cannot simply go ahead and blame Serbs – and Serbs only – for what had happened amongst people who inhabit the Balkans. Serbian women had been raped as well. The Serbian nation has suffered a great deal as well. Through many wars, Croats killed Serbs, Serbs killed Croats, Muslims killed Croats, Serbs killed Muslims, Muslims killed Serbs, Croats killed Muslims. It is everybody’s fault and Serbs, Muslims and Croats altogether will eternally carry the burden which multiple wars bestowed upon them – grief, guilt, anger. So please, stop blaming Serbs only because they are Serbs.
Post Scriptum: Messrs. Moony, Padfoot, Wormtail and Prongs suggest that Angelina Jolie should keep her nose out of things that do not concern her.

Gabrielle – the problem with “Serbs” – meaning those that engaged in the politics and aggression against other states of former Yugoslavia – is that they deny their aggression and they deny the other states’ right to defend themselves from that aggression. And when aggression forces one to defend oneself then more ugly things happen…Why should Angeline Jolie or anyone else keep her nose out? Rape concerns her as a human being, as a woman …

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Welcome!

Welcome to my blog. Here I will bring to you a variety of topics covering the documented truth about that terrible war that Croatia had to endure during the period between 1991 and 1995 and about Croatian political history that shaped a wonderful nation of people.

Croatian people wanted independence for centuries, just as they had it until the twelfth century but fate was not on their side – others wanted their beautiful land. In late 1980′s the will to break free from Yugoslavia which suffocated freedom and self determination through harsh communist party rule finally bore the desired fruit.

In June 1991 Croatia declared its independence; soon after the aggressive war against Croatia broke out. The struggle of the Croatian people for self-determination was a just one. But I fear genuine justice has not been served as there have been, and there still exist, international covert and overt moves to equate victims with aggressors continue in attempts to change history. Truth often becomes obscured and lost and that is why I have chosen to write this blog, to concentrate on actual events and issues about Croatia – wishing it a bright and freedom-loving future.

It certainly was not easy to come out of the war that was fought on two fronts:

1. On the military front the world’s public has seen the indiscriminate bombardment of Croatian cities, towns and villages from land, sea and air; the destruction of civilian targets including homes, schools, hospitals, churches, factories and cultural monuments; the blockading and destruction of roads, bridges and ports; the blockading of power, water, food and medical supplies. What hasn’t been shown on our television sets is the forced clearing and evacuation of towns and villages, followed by looting, torture, rape and murder carried out by the Serbian forces, who were initially backed by the federal Yugoslav army that was largely constituted by Serb nationals; the transportation of multiple hundreds of innocent Croatian civilians from Croatia into concentration camps Serbia (Begejci, Stajicevo, Sremska Mitrovica... from October 1991, and later (1992) transferred into Serb-held camps in Bosnia and Herzegovina (Omarska, Keratern, Manjaca, Trnopolje).

2. The second front was the war of political propaganda centred on: misinformation about the rights of minorities in Croatia; portrayal of the Croatian people as Ustasha or Fascists; the representation of the Croatian defence forces as illegal paramilitary units; the representation of the Croatian and Slovenian republics as unreasonable secessionists who are unwilling to negotiate; a regurgitation of distorted facts about World War II.

Indeed Croatia had an absolute right to defend itself and this is often forgotten if not often denied it.

Ina Vukic

Ina has been a tireless volunteer on humanitarian aid and fundraising for victims of war in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, especially war orphans. From1991 to beginning of 1994 she contributed in lobbying for international recognition of Croatian independence and Croatia’s rights in defending its territory and people from military aggression by Serbian forces. For this dedicated voluntary work Ina was awarded two Medals of Honour by the first president of the Republic of Croatia in 1995 (Commemorative Medal of the Homeland War and Order of the Croatian Trefoil).Ina has also written hundreds articles for newspapers in Australia and Croatia on the plight of Croatian people for freedom and self-determination, developing democracy in former communist countries. She holds two graduate and one post-graduate university degrees, specialising in behaviour, clinical and political psychology and management.

Blessed Aloysius Stepinac quote:

“When they take everything from you, you’ll be left with two hands; put them together in prayer and then you’ll be the strongest.” Blessed Aloysius Stepinac (1898 – 1960)

First President of Croatia Dr Franjo Tudjman quote:

“They could not, nor will they ever be able to kill our passion and our need to live in human dignity, in peace with ourselves and with the free nations of Europe. We have carved out that right at our first democratic elections. For this right and for our sacred land we are even ready to die” – Dr Franjo Tudjman (1922-1999) ( Addressing the Croatian nation at the moment of the start of Serbian aggression against Croatia, 16 October 1991)

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